The Bungalows Built In A Day By 3D Printers

Houses are springing up rapidly over in China and it's all thanks to the innovative way 3D printing works.

The buildings are made from quick-drying concrete and waste materials If you've been keeping pace with recent developments in the field of 3D printing, you'll know that the innovative additive manufacturing process is being used to produce everything from chess sets to robotic arms. As the hardware matures, the scope of 3D printing is growing and growing, and the latest projects are using a wider variety of materials as well as operating on a larger scale. A Chinese company has used the technology to create 10 full-sized bungalows in the space of just 24 hours. Constructed from waste materials and quick-drying concrete, the robust houses cost a mere £3,000 each, and the same process could one day be used to create buildings on an even larger scale. Of course, this isn't the first time 3D printing has been used to create pop-up houses — you might have already seen the structure being put up alongside one of Amsterdam's canals.

WinSun CEO Ma Yihe shows off one of his company's products Powerful printing You can't produce buildings this size with a humble desktop printer. The devices that were used to put up the new neighbourhood are 105 feet (32m) long, 33 feet (10m) wide and 22 feet (6.7m) high. The printers' inventor Ma Yihe, who has been in the 3D business for 12 years, said he was particularly proud of the quick-drying solution his team had come up with, which is both cheap and environmentally friendly: "To obtain natural stone, we have to employ miners, dig up blocks of stone and saw them into pieces. This badly damages the environment," he told Chinese news agency Xinhua. "But with the 3D printing, we recycle mine tailings into usable materials. And we can print buildings with any digital design our customers bring us. It's fast and cheap."

The construction materials are relatively cheap to produce Worker benefits The construction workers benefit too: they don't have to work in cramped and dusty conditions, as the printer does all of the work. Presumably that means they're out of a job at the same time, but as yet the technology is still in its infancy and we won't be seeing buildings printed to order for some time yet. Not only do the hardware and materials need to develop substantially, but construction bodies need to agree on safety standards for these new types of buildings and processes. For the time being, 3D-printed homes in China must be single storey, for example. The recipe for the quick-drying cement and waste mixture used to build these bungalows is being kept under wraps, as it appears to be much cheaper and easier to manage than other house-building materials that have been used so far in 3D printing projects. The University of California, for example, has a 3D printer that can build one house in 24 hours; the project in China can produce 10 small homes in that time.

Ten compact buildings were constructed in the space of just 24 hours Fast and efficient Four different printers were used to construct the ten homes, and it's the speed at which the houses can be built as well as the minimal labour costs that help to bring the price of each dwelling down. One day in the near future the printers could be used to supply cheap housing for those who are living in poverty or as emergency shelters for people recovering from the effects of a natural disaster. 3D printed skyscrapers and beachside villas may be some way off, but it seems that we'll get there eventually. It's not just the mechanics of the construction that makes 3D-printed homes such an interesting idea — it's also the ease with which designs can be put together and shared. Imagine being able to have a say in how your new home is constructed, or having the opportunity to create a carbon copy of a building on the other side of the world. There are challenges to overcome along the way, such as the complexity of dealing with multiple materials and having to incorporate internal wiring and plumbing, but these aren't insurmountable.

Some of the homes had a second room, though they were all single storey buildings No mean feat According to the write-up on the WinSun website (the private firm in charge of the project), visiting academics and engineers were hugely impressed with what Ma Yihe and his team had managed to put together in such a short space of time. The houses themselves offered 200 square metres of space, so while they're not up to the standards of the homes on a British cul-de-sac, they certainly provide enough room for a family in need. This type of innovation is particularly pertinent in China. With a population that's expanding quickly, the country needs as much affordable housing as it can get, and the techniques demonstrated by WinSun could play a big part in meeting that need. WinSun is hoping to move on to grander projects and more elaborate materials in the future.

Construction workers oversee the 3D blocks being slotted into place The same could be said of 3D printing technology as a whole. While it's already capable of some impressive feats, there's plenty more to come as the hardware gets smarter, cheaper and more intricate. 3D printers may seem like a novelty for now, but it's no exaggeration to say that they'll go on to revolutionise manufacturing and construction in the years ahead.